Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have all of the students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material. These activities allow students to apply what they have learned earlier or give them a context for upcoming lecture material.
Cobbles on a beach
For example: One way to transform a traditional lecture into an interactive lecture would be have students discuss their observations of the picture linked to the thumbnail to the left rather than telling the students what you see. Then call on some groups for their responses and discuss as a class.
Types of Interactive Activities
Lecturers can use a variety of interactive activities to engage their students. Such activities include having students
observe and interpret features of images
interpret graphs
make calculation and estimates
brainstorm
These are examples of the types of activities described in more detail in Interactive Segments. Many of these activities not only involve the students in the material, they can also promote critical thinking, develop quantitative skills, and allow for informal assessment of student understanding.
What is Interactive Lecture?
Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have all of the students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material. These activities allow students to apply what they have learned earlier or give them a context for upcoming lecture material.
For example: One way to transform a traditional lecture into an interactive lecture would be have students discuss their observations of the picture linked to the thumbnail to the left rather than telling the students what you see. Then call on some groups for their responses and discuss as a class.
Types of Interactive Activities
Lecturers can use a variety of interactive activities to engage their students. Such activities include having students
observe and interpret features of images
interpret graphs
make calculation and estimates
brainstorm
These are examples of the types of activities described in more detail in Interactive Segments. Many of these activities not only involve the students in the material, they can also promote critical thinking, develop quantitative skills, and allow for informal assessment of student understanding.
Think-Pair-Share
Ask your students to get together in pairs. If need be, have some of the students move. If you have an odd number of students, allow one group of three. It's important to have small groups so that each student can talk. Open-ended questions are more likely to generate more discussion.
Ask a question.
Give students a minute to two (longer for more complicated questions) to discuss the question and work out an answer.
Ask for responses from some or all of the pairs.
Advantages of the think-pair-share technique are that
it's quick
it doesn't take much preparation time
the personal interaction motivates many students with little intrinsic interest in science
you can ask different kinds and levels of questions
it engages the entire class and allows quiet students to answer questions without having to stand out from their classmates.
you can assess student understanding by listening in on several groups during the activity, and by collecting responses at the end
You can do think-pair-share activities once or several times during a given class period
Think-Ink-Pair-Share
An adaptation of Pair-Share, that allows for both a “Think” and an “Ink” component so students get clear in their own minds what they think about a given topic or prompt and do a quick-write of their thinking before sharing.
Pose a specific question, prompt, or idea for students to THINK about.
Give students two to three minutes to write their ideas by responding, informally, in writing to the prompt.
(Note that student responses might vary in structure including traditional reflective writing, but also sketches, lists, bulleted points, or even a combination of words and drawings.)
Students engage with a partner to share their thinking.
Think, Ink, Pair Share honors the need for learners to engage in collaborative content talk, while providing sufficient thinking time prior to the dialogue so that students are prepared for the social interaction. Students who are “ready” to talk are also more inclined to listen for new information which might confirm (or clarify) their initial assumptions.
Examples of think-pair-share questions include:
Describe and interpret the graph.
Before we start talking about finding the area of parallelograms discuss what you know about parallolograms and polygons; their characteristics, requirements, real-life examples After responses are collected, and possibly a short lecture on climate history: How do we know what the climate was like before people started keeping track?
From the data provided, what was the rate of the chemical reaction?
What kinds of jobs do you think require people with knowledge of Calculus?
You can use the student responses as a basis for discussion, to motivate a lecture segment, and to obtain feedback about what your students know or are thinking.
"According to this review of learning literature, in large science classes, 92% of the time is spent on lecture, ~4% on student questions and ~4% in silence. During a lecture, students are attentive 56%-60% of the time, based on self-reporting and observation. Student notes record 40% of the lecture material in a 15-min. lecture, 25% in a 30-min. lecture, and 20% in a 40-min. lecture. A class which used a think-pair-share technique for 2-3 minutes for every 12-18 minutes of lecture remembered more of the lecture material directly after the class and twelve days later than the control class that got the same lecture without the TPS breaks." The lecture as a learning device
T.J. Wenzel 1999
Writing to Learn in Math Discussion Outline
What is Interactive Lecture?
Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have all of the students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material. These activities allow students to apply what they have learned earlier or give them a context for upcoming lecture material.For example: One way to transform a traditional lecture into an interactive lecture would be have students discuss their observations of the picture linked to the thumbnail to the left rather than telling the students what you see. Then call on some groups for their responses and discuss as a class.
Types of Interactive Activities
Lecturers can use a variety of interactive activities to engage their students. Such activities include having studentsThese are examples of the types of activities described in more detail in Interactive Segments. Many of these activities not only involve the students in the material, they can also promote critical thinking, develop quantitative skills, and allow for informal assessment of student understanding.
What is Interactive Lecture?
Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have all of the students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material. These activities allow students to apply what they have learned earlier or give them a context for upcoming lecture material.For example: One way to transform a traditional lecture into an interactive lecture would be have students discuss their observations of the picture linked to the thumbnail to the left rather than telling the students what you see. Then call on some groups for their responses and discuss as a class.
Types of Interactive Activities
Lecturers can use a variety of interactive activities to engage their students. Such activities include having studentsThese are examples of the types of activities described in more detail in Interactive Segments. Many of these activities not only involve the students in the material, they can also promote critical thinking, develop quantitative skills, and allow for informal assessment of student understanding.
Think-Pair-Share
Ask your students to get together in pairs. If need be, have some of the students move. If you have an odd number of students, allow one group of three. It's important to have small groups so that each student can talk. Open-ended questions are more likely to generate more discussion.Advantages of the think-pair-share technique are that
- it's quick
- it doesn't take much preparation time
- the personal interaction motivates many students with little intrinsic interest in science
- you can ask different kinds and levels of questions
- it engages the entire class and allows quiet students to answer questions without having to stand out from their classmates.
- you can assess student understanding by listening in on several groups during the activity, and by collecting responses at the end
You can do think-pair-share activities once or several times during a given class periodThink-Ink-Pair-Share
An adaptation of Pair-Share, that allows for both a “Think” and an “Ink” component so students get clear in their own minds what they think about a given topic or prompt and do a quick-write of their thinking before sharing.(Note that student responses might vary in structure including traditional reflective writing, but also sketches, lists, bulleted points, or even a combination of words and drawings.)
Think, Ink, Pair Share honors the need for learners to engage in collaborative content talk, while providing sufficient thinking time prior to the dialogue so that students are prepared for the social interaction. Students who are “ready” to talk are also more inclined to listen for new information which might confirm (or clarify) their initial assumptions.
Examples of think-pair-share questions include:
- Describe and interpret the graph.
- Before we start talking about finding the area of parallelograms discuss what you know about parallolograms and polygons; their characteristics, requirements, real-life examples After responses are collected, and possibly a short lecture on climate history: How do we know what the climate was like before people started keeping track?
- From the data provided, what was the rate of the chemical reaction?
- What kinds of jobs do you think require people with knowledge of Calculus?
You can use the student responses as a basis for discussion, to motivate a lecture segment, and to obtain feedback about what your students know or are thinking."According to this review of learning literature, in large science classes, 92% of the time is spent on lecture, ~4% on student questions and ~4% in silence. During a lecture, students are attentive 56%-60% of the time, based on self-reporting and observation. Student notes record 40% of the lecture material in a 15-min. lecture, 25% in a 30-min. lecture, and 20% in a 40-min. lecture. A class which used a think-pair-share technique for 2-3 minutes for every 12-18 minutes of lecture remembered more of the lecture material directly after the class and twelve days later than the control class that got the same lecture without the TPS breaks."
The lecture as a learning device
T.J. Wenzel 1999
Writing in Math Wiki